The 108th Congress
By Mark Alexander · Friday, November 8, 2002
President George Bush welcomed the new 108th Congress this week -- both chambers will soon be in Republican hands. "I congratulate the men and women, Republicans and Democrats...and I appreciate their willingness to leave their private lives and to serve their communities and to serve our nation," said the president. So much for Clinton/Gore's "bridge to the 21st century."
Tuesday's results are being called a "win for George Bush and the Republican Party," but it was, most significantly, a victory for the American people! Democrat analysts, emerging from the election rubble Wednesday, argue that Mr. Bush's popularity is responsible for the historic Republican gains -- that the "Bush victories" are the result of the 9-11 tragedy, which "made George Bush." But Republicans won because they largely ran on conservative platforms, and, despite all the DNC rhetoric, conservative issues resonate with the people. And, as The Federalist has argued repeatedly, 9-11 did not make George Bush, it provided an unfettered view of the substance that is George Bush -- and that is a major distinction.
For his part, President Bush responded: "Candidates win elections because they are good candidates, not because they happen to have the president as a friend, or a foe for that matter. I really don't put this in personal terms. I know people in Washington like to do that...that's the way they do it here, zero-sum in Washington. And I know that. But if you're really interested in what I think, I think the fact that [Minnesota's] Norm Coleman ran a very difficult race in difficult circumstances and won speaks volumes about Norm Coleman."
Tuesday's results also say much about the character of Americans under fire -- that a majority of us, against huge "carrot and stick" political odds parroted repeatedly by the Leftmedia, are willing to elect representatives who run on campaign themes of responsible citizenship rather than handouts.
Character and substance were central themes in victories around the nation. In the Maryland governorship race, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's execrable reminder of dead Kennedys to stump for gun control was a loser, with Bob Ehrlich taking that seat (making the Kennedy clan 0 - 3 this election season). A last-minute campaign blitz by Albert Gore angered so many people that Mr. Ehrlich should send Gore flowers! In Missouri, switch-appointed Demo Sen. Jean Carnahan was defeated by a fine Republican, Jim Talent. In Minnesota, Walter "Fritz" Mondale was unable to convert the death of Paul Wellstone into political capital -- even though every ignoble Democrat in the nation turned out for the rally...uh...memorial.
Political commentator George Will summed up, "Furthermore, the vulgarity of the politicized memorial service for Paul Wellstone may have cost the Democrats Minnesota's Senate contest. If so, that, too, was condign punishment. It was a wholesome rejection of contemporary liberalism's belief that because government should be everything, politics should be everywhere."
And speaking of character, while the Left willingly re-elects character deficits (see Clinton, Kennedy, et al.), conservatives don't. That was reiterated in the defeat of Arkansas Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson, who was first elected as a pro-family candidate, but defeated after he recently divorced his wife for a congressional intern.
All said and done, President Bush will now have the backing last possessed by FDR during World War II and its immediate aftermath, to set national defense and domestic policy. He has now received the mandate to govern. This is where the president and the GOP will be put to the test. He is no longer wrestling a coalition government, and he and the Republican Party must now lead. Mr. Bush has already promised to send back to the Senate his slate of stalled judicial nominees. We hope he does so forthwith, as perhaps the deal-closer to sell conservatives on Bush's 2000 presidential candidacy was his pledge to nominate constitutional constructionists to federal benches!
As The Federalist has emphasized in the weeks leading up to this election, Tuesday's Senate races -- more than the economy, national security or war with Iraq -- were about the future of the judiciary, especially the aging U.S. Supreme Court, preparing for the retirement of two or possibly three justices, Chief Justice Rehnquist included. As the gatekeepers of the judiciary, the Senate under the obstructionist tactics of Tom Daschle bottlenecked the president's judicial nominees to the point of crisis. Presently, in the federal district courts, 50 of 665 judgeships (7.5%) are vacant; in the federal appellate courts, 27 of 179 judgeships (15%) are vacant. Of 781 active judges on the federal bench, 46% were appointed by Bill Clinton. With the Senate firmly in Republican hands, the confirmation of judicial nominees will be among the first acts of the chamber when it reconvenes under conservative leadership.
But while Tuesday's election results were good news for Republicans, that may not translate into significant conservative gains. Consider for a benchmark, as we at The Federalist have for several months, the roster of constitutionalists not returning to Congress; here are a few of our departing favorites: In the House, Dick Armey of Texas, and from the Senate, Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Phil Gramm of Texas, Fred Thompson of Tennessee, Bob Smith of New Hampshire, and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Of these six sturdy conservatives, five of their successors are markedly inferior replacements.
Republican conservatives, when given the electorate's confidence, have rarely missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Ronald Reagan made great strides after winning the presidency in 1980, right through 1984, only to see internal administration changes water down his second term -- and then came his 1989 handoff to George Bush(41), who on his presidential inauguration day did a complete 180, pink-slipping the Reaganites and calling for a "kinder and gentler" government. (As Nancy Reagan pointedly asked, "Kinder and gentler than who?") And you know who that, and the spineless "read my lips" retraction, gave us for eight long years.
Of course, Republicans had another chance for conservative advance with the 1994 wins taking both the House of Representatives and the Senate against Bill Clinton. Most elements of the "Contract with America" were completed, but Republican leadership fell over its own feet in late 1995 -- during the so-called "government shutdown."
So, what now? Tuesday's election is irrelevant if President Bush fails to seize the moment and move legislation on high priority conservative agenda items. There is a very high expectation that the president will no longer appease the Democrats and that he must get on with the business of implementing a conservative domestic agenda.
The president added that next Tuesday when Congress returns in session: "Obviously there's going to be a huge laundry list of things people want to get done, and my job is to set priorities and get them done. And job creation and economic security, as well as homeland security, are the most important priorities we face. The single most important item of unfinished business on Capitol Hill is to create a unified Department of Homeland Security that will vastly improve our ability to protect our coasts and our borders and our communities. The Senate must pass a bill that will strengthen our ability to protect the American people."
We agree with the president that the first order of business is homeland and economic security. But now is the time not only to neutralize Saddam and defend against the Jihadistan threat, but also the time for restored military capacity, comprehensive tax reform, a reconstituted judiciary, comprehensive immigration reform, a new energy policy, privatized Social Security and an overall reduction of the size and scope of the central government. Republicans have a small window to retake the national initiative on these issues -- and they must find the corporate spine to do just that.